Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Jovel Álvarez, a Rome-based journalist who covered Pope Leo’s apostolic journey to Turkey and Lebanon, returned to report on the suffering of the nation’s Christians in the 2026 Lebanon war.

“In the midst of this conflict, generally viewed from the Israeli or Shiite Muslim perspective, are the Christians,” he said. “The great overlooked ones in media coverage. Christians who have grown up between one war and another, and who lament that Hezbollah has dragged their country into yet another conflict.”

Pope Leo XIV renewed his condemnation of anti-Semitism during a March 23 meeting with the chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center.

“The meeting was warm and highly constructive. His Holiness underscored the importance he places on preserving the memory of the Holocaust and reaffirmed his commitment to advancing our shared goals,” said Dani Dayan, Yad Vashem’s chairman. “We also addressed the alarming rise in anti-Semitism worldwide and the urgent need for coordinated, decisive action to confront it.”

In a letter for the 30th anniversary of the children’s section of Avvenire, the Italian bishops’ newspaper, Pope Leo XIV reflected on Christ’s words, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

“To be like children is not to go back, but to guard a key to see the essential of everything, to find surprising answers to even the most difficult questions,” Pope Leo wrote. “Perhaps only by looking at the bewildered eyes of children in the face of the barbarity of war can we be converted.”

“We must not let children come to believe that AI chatbots can be their best friends or the oracle of all knowledge, thereby dulling their intellect and their ability to form relationships, and stifling their creativity and their thinking,” the Pope added. “We must protect their childhood and guide their growth so that they are protagonists of a renewed world.”

In a 267-114 vote, members of the Confraternity (Brotherhood) of the Purest Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ voted to retain male-only membership. Since the fifteenth century, the confraternity has organized Holy Week processions in Sagunto, a Spanish city of 73,000.

Stating that “Holy Week must be egalitarian,” Ana Redondo García, Spain’s minister of equality, vowed to take action against the confraternity.

In 2024, the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled that a confraternity with male-only membership in another Spanish town violated women’s constitutional rights, including the right to free association. That ruling is under appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

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We have another ancient beautiful Lenten lesson. The division between Jesus and His enemies becomes more critical, more sharp. There are references in both readings to "being lifted up." This reminds us of the crucifixion on Calvary and of events coming ten days from now. --The Vatican II Weekday Missal

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